Air cleaner housings for motor vehicles are typically arranged to support a disposable air filter element between two shells. The shells are disposed about the inlet side of the air cleaner and the outlet side of the air cleaner and serve to gather the air across the broad surface of the air cleaner and direct it to an air passageway. Adequate sealing must be provided between the edge of the two air cleaner shells and the disposable air cleaner element itself to prevent air from leaking around the side of the air cleaner element without passing through the air cleaner element and continuing on to the intake manifold and the engine. For this reason, a flexible seal is often provided between the periphery of the air cleaner and the air cleaner housing itself. The seal prevents air from bypassing around the edge of the air cleaner.
A problem with many air cleaner designs is that the seal is compressed to provide an airtight seal. Disposable air cleaner elements typically require a seal having a length of at least two linear feet (for a six inch by six inch disposable air cleaner element) and can go as large as three or three and a half feet in length. Compressing this length of seal requires a significant force. Prior art air cleaner housings have addressed this problem by being constructed as two roughly hemispherical shells, with the disposable air cleaner element sandwiched between, looking much like the popular hamburger. To replace the disposable air cleaner element, the top shell is unscrewed from the bottom shell, the disposable elements exchanged, and the top shell screwed back on the bottom shell with the new air cleaner element between. A primary drawback of this method is the need for even tensioning of the two shells together and hence the requirement of many screw fasteners evenly spaced around the periphery of the air cleaner shells coupling them together. This arrangement requires a significant amount of time to both unscrew and rescrew the connectors.
What is needed, therefore, is an improved air cleaner that is capable of more rapid air cleaner element replacement.